Chas & Dave

"Chas & Dave" (often billed as Chas 'n' Dave) are an English pop rock duo, most notable as creators and performers of a musical style labelled "rockney", which mixes "pub singalong, music-hall humour, boogie-woogie piano and pre-Beatles rock 'n' roll". For a time, "Rockney" was also the name of their record label, and they achieved several British chart hits, their major breakthrough being "Gertcha" in 1979, which peaked at No. 20 in the UK Singles Chart, and was the first of eight Top 40 hit singles the duo played on. The act has also enjoyed nine best-selling albums. The group consists of Charles Nicholas "Chas" Hodges (piano, vocals, banjo, guitars) and David Victor "Dave" Peacock (bass guitar, vocals, piano, banjo, guitar, ukulele) together with Michael William "Mick" Burt on drums. In 2011, Burt retired from the band with Chas's son, Nicholas Charles "Nik" Hodges taking over on drums. In the 1970s Chas & Dave were prominent session musicians, playing for a wide range of artists; for instance - the hook used on Eminem's "My Name Is" was taken from a Labi Siffre tune, "I Got The", on which Chas & Dave performed. The rockney style was from the start intentional, as they felt an alternative to the way British bands copied American accents was needed. Chas has said “ I was singing in an American accent. I thought, 'You're being a fraud, you should sing in your own accent', and that's when I started to work on the idea".